Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... Jon Garland couldn't beat them. So he joined them. And then he beat the old them.
Traded from the fourth-place Diamondbacks to the first-place Dodgers earlier in the week, Garland on Friday faced Arizona in his first start for Los Angeles.
"It was fun. I grew up coming to games here, and getting a chance to pitch for this team is definitely a dream come true," Garland said. "It's kind of awkward the way it happened -- but nevertheless, it did -- and I was able to throw a good one up. I didn't leave too many tickets. I cut the phone off and told people if they want to come, they can pay for it and support the team."
The news of Moore's extension is bound to get mixed reviews from Royals fans who have watched the team suffer through another losing season, but it's apparent that team owner David Glass still believes that Moore is the right man to help turn the franchise around.
A contract extension for Kansas City GM Dayton Moore is "done," according to a major-league source.
Moore's original contract ran through 2010, and the source did not know how many years the extension would cover.
This will create much anguish for those who focus on Moore's moves the past year and their horrendous performance the past 3 1/2 months (31-67 after an 18-11 start).
On Tuesday the Kansas City Royals demoted third baseman Alex Gordon to Triple-A Omaha in hopes that he can get his swing worked out and start hitting like the player they thought would be a cornerstone of their franchise. After missing the first three months of the season due to surgery to repair torn cartilage in his hip, Gordon has struggled.
Of course, there are some people who think this demotion has more to do with saving money than it does Gordon's healing. There's a theory out there that the Royals can delay his free agency another season by demoting him now, which is a theory general manager Dayton Moore denies.
Jose Guillen has been an albatross for the Kansas City Royals since the moment he signed a three-year, $36 million deal with the club in December 2007.
He's hit .257 with a .304 on-base percentage in a season and a half with the Royals, and, just for good measure, he was suspended for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy hours after passing a physical with his new team (a suspension that was later rescinded as part of the agreement that granted players named in the Mitchell Report amnesty).
The 2009 season was supposed to be the one where the Kansas City Royals were able to compete in what was viewed as a weak AL Central division. Things started out nicely enough, with the Royals getting off to an 18-11 start and holding first place while Zack Greinke took the baseball world by storm. Since then, however, things haven't been going very well for the Royals.
In fact, they've gone pretty terrible, as the Royals are 19-42 since and are 11 1/2 games back in what's still a pretty mediocre division. So, as is normally the case when things like this happen, fans start to look for someone to blame. The popular target in Kansas City is Trey Hillman. So, will Hillman finish the year in Kansas City?
Now that the Yankees know they're going to be without Alex Rodriguez for at least six weeks thanks to hip surgery, they can focus on finding somebody to replace him at third base. Unfortunately for the Bombers, replacing somebody like A-Rod is a lot easier said than done, but there are some decent options out there.
Greinke, still just 25, burst into the majors in 2004 at age 20 and instantly became the symbol of hope for one of baseball's most downtrodden franchises, but his career took a scary turn in 2006, when he missed almost the entire season battling depression and social anxiety disorder.
He's slowly put it all back together since then, culminating in a 2008 campaign that saw him post a 13-10 record along with a 3.47 ERA and 183 strikeouts in 202 1/3 innings.
To fans and the media, what a team does in the MLB Draft pales next to a big free-agent signing or blockbuster trade.
Part of that is the gaudy figures thrown around during the hot stove season. The Red Sox, this year's top spender in the draft, couldn't even buy one year of Gil Meche if they shifted their draft outlay to the open market. Most of it stems from immediacy, though. A big winter signing answers the question who will help me today? A big haul in the draft answers who will help me tomorrow, but in most cases tomorrow is years away, if it ever comes at all.
Still, as the cost of free agents escalates, the draft continues to become the most important way to ensure long-term success. With that in mind, and with the deadline to sign picks in the books, here's a look at three teams who won and three teams who lost in the 2008 draft
Kansas City Royals starter Gil Meche hasn't exactly been living up to that $11 million price tag of his this season. Meche is 3-8 with an ERA of 5.54, a WHIP of 1.47, and nearly halfway to matching last season's walk total of 62 already.
So when a pitcher costs a lot, is struggling, and plays for a small budget team who is in last place, the rumors start to swirl that he may soon be on the move. This is the case for Meche as teams like the Cubs are interested in his services, but Gil and Dayton Moore want you to know that it's not going to happen.
Right-hander Gil Meche just laughs at those rumors circulating regarding a possible trade sending him to the Chicago Cubs.
"How's that going to happen?" he asked.
Meche has a no-trade clause in his contract and said he hasn't been asked to waive it. Furthermore, he has no interest in doing so.
General manager Dayton Moore declined to comment on the rumor, but club officials privately dismissed it. One said, "If we're going to make a run at this thing in 2010, how are we going to do it without Gil Meche?"
Meche had a chance to be a member of the Cubs before joining the Royals, as they were one of the teams bidding for his services before last season, but he chose Kansas City. It doesn't look like a year and a half of losing has done anything to help change his mind.
Still, if you ever thought you'd hear a general manager question how a team could win without Gil Meche, well, you must be his mother or something.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
As was reported by 
On Tuesday the Kansas City Royals demoted third baseman Alex Gordon to Triple-A Omaha in hopes that he can get his swing worked out and start hitting like the player they thought would be a cornerstone of their franchise. After missing the first three months of the season due to surgery to repair torn cartilage in his hip, Gordon has struggled.
The 2009 season was supposed to be the one where the 
Now that the Yankees know they're going to be without 
Emerging ace 
Kansas City Royals starter 
